James "Professor Puff" Henry may as well have "loser" stamped on his forehead. Divorced, overweight, shy, and living at home, he relies on books and his favorite snack -- cheese puffs -- for sweet relief from his problems. A former English lit professor at William and Mary, he moves back to Quincy's Gap, a small Virginia town in the Shenandoah Valley, to take care of his recently-widowed father. To improve his social life and waistline, he joins a supper club for dieters who lovingly call themselves the "Flab Five." Avoiding carbs is nearly impossible in this deep-fried potato-loving land, so a mysterious death in their small burg provides an effective, if disturbing, distraction. While dodging delectable temptations, Professor Henry and his fellow dieters work together to shed pounds and find the killer who has struck fear in this tight-knit community.Click here to download Book Club Questions for Carbs and Cadavers, prepared by author J.B. Stanley!

Here is what I thought

James Henry, Professor Puff, to a lot of people because he has a weakness for cheese puffs, just moved back home and in with his father. He is newly divorced and his dad needed some companionship to get him going after the death of his wife. James takes a job as a librarian and doesn’t really have any friends. Then one day a woman comes in with a poster for a supper club, but one where the group would work on losing weight. She asked him if he would like to come because they need an extra member to be the deciding vote on what type of diet they try. Since James could do with losing a few pounds he decides to try it out and finds a great group of friends.

Lucy, one of the members works for the police but is not a cop but wants to be so when a guy dies and a young lady she knows is accused she wants to find out whodunit. She enlist the help of her friends who are calling themselves the “flab five” to help find out what happened. There are a few suspects and they don’t get it completely right and get a bit in trouble. 🙂

I liked that the author gave us some characters who need a bit of work. For all of us out there a bit overweight its nice to have a cozy that surrounds wonderful foods and friends and the fact that you can also lose weight by hanging out and eating. 🙂 These characters are flawed. James couldn’t help but gave a snack bag of his favorite Cheese Puffs, he catches Lucy with her downfall icing, etc. It’s hard to lose weight and I liked that it’s a good mystery but also reflects how hard it is to lose weight even with friends.

It has a good mystery and I didn’t figure it out though I kind of figured it out right before it’s revealed but that doesn’t count…lol.

It’s another fun cozy series and I can’t wait to try out some more of them!

The Narrator

Karen White narrates this one and she is one of my favorites so it was a delight to have her voice in my ear again. 🙂 Though I thought it was weird the main character is a man and it has a female narrator. I guess it’s cause most the other characters are females…lol.

Stormi

Glad you liked it, Stormi. I’ve been having fun with this series. I, too, was surprised that the main character was a man, but because the narrative is a distant 3rd person POV, I think it still works. I just started recording the fourth book in the series, so these will all be ready to listen to pretty quick!

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